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Michele Claibourn
I am a research director – a political scientist, data scientist, community-engaged scholar, and senior administrator – and professor with 20 years of experience teaching, leading, and managing research and data science teams.
My work centers on action-based research, using the tools of data science to promote accountable governance, make social inequities visible, and impact public policy and movement building.
Professional Experience
Leadership
Envision, design, and lead research projects with academic and community partners seeking to understand racial and other disparities and to develop policy responses. Manage multiple projects and train and mentor students engaging in community-engaged data science.
Founded StatLab, a data science consulting service for members of the UVA community. Built a new division within the library to support the growing data science research community at UVA, recruiting, hiring, and managing a team with diverse skills and talents..
Managed a team of 10-12 full-time staff, 3-4 graduate fellows, and research teams across mulitple collaborations on a range of programmatic and research projects.
Director of Equitable Analysis, Asst Professor of Public Policy
The Equity Center and The Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, University of Virginia
N/A
2022 - 2021
- Leading the Democratization of Data initiative in the UVA Equity Center to provide data tools, research and analysis in collaboration with leaders and advocates promoting regional equity.
- Teaching courses on data ethics and practice, visualization, and equitable policy in the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy.
- Faculty Affiliate & Lead Data Scientist, Global Policy Center (2019-2021), using predictive analytics on the timing, magnitude, and duration of mass-displacement in partnership with Save the Children, International.
Director, Research Data Services & Sciences
UVA Library, University of Virginia
N/A
2021 - 2013
- Built a new research data services team to support data use and infrastructure, managed and developed library staff and services for the social, natural, and engineering sciences, and provided statistical and data science consultation and instruction to researchers across disciplines including on the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data.
- Data Science Director, The Equity Center, 2020-2021 (partial buyout)
- Associate Director, Data Science Institute, 2014-2016 (partial buyout)
Data Scientist
Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, University of Virginia
N/A
2013 - 2011
- Design and conduct quantiative research for local governments, civic sector clients, and the public interest.
Assistant Professor
University of Virginia and University of Oklahoma
N/A
2011 - 2002
- Department of Politics, University of Virginia (2004-2011); Department of Political Science, University of Oklahoma (2002-2004).
- Desiged and taught graduate-level research and statistics courses and undergraduate-level courses on political behavior and political psychology.
- Developed, implemented, and published new research on social capital, electoral responsiveness, and political communication from ideation, data collection and wrangling, analysis and communication.
Education
PhD., Political Science
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, WI
2002 - 1996
B.A, Political Science
Rice University
Houston, TX
1993 - 1989
Teaching and Mentoring
Teaching and Writing
20+ years of experience teaching statistics and data science methods, policy, and political behavior to undergraduate and graduate students.
Design data workshop series for student and adult learning communities, including recruiting and mentoring instructors, marketing and assessment, and contributing to select topics.
Experienced writer in multiple formats, from university press books and peer-reviewed journal articles, to action-oriented reports for local and state agencies, educational materials, and informal writing.
Skilled in communicating about data, technology, and policy to stakeholders, advocates, and learners.Methods and Software
- Inferential and predictive modeling
- Data visualization and computation
- Text analytics
- R, RStudio, Shiny
- GitHub and reproducibility
- Stata and SPSS
- Some Python and SQL
- Qualitative methods
Last updated on 2023-01-03.
Graduate Courses
University of Virginia and University of Oklahoma
N/A
2022 - 2002
- Imagining Equitable Policy, Public Interest Data: Ethics & Practice, Data Visualization, Saving Lives with Data, Text as Data, Applied Causal Inference, General Linear Models, Linear Models, Applied Time Series, Mixed-Effects Models/Longitudinal Analysis, Introduction to Statistical Analysis
University-wide Workshops
University of Virginia
N/A
2021 - 2013
- Data Science in R, Multiple Imputation, Cluster Analysis, Duration Models, Matching Methods, Mixed-Effects Models,Sentiment Analysis, Topic Modeling, Text Classification, Data Wrangling, Linear Modeling
Undergraduate Courses
University of Virginia and University of Oklahoma
N/A
2020 - 2002
- Project First Gen +, Research Design & Analysis, The Presidency and the Public, Media & Political Communication, Political Pscyology & Decision Making, Citizen Competence in American Democracy, Introduction to American Politics
Selected Publications and Projects
Confederate monuments and the history of lynching in the American South: An empirical examination
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Oct 2021 (With Kyshia Henderson, Samuel Powers, Jazmin L. Brown-Iannuzzi, and Sophie Trawalter)
N/A
2021
Citizen Participation and Congressional Responsiveness: New Evidence for Why Participation Matters
Legislative Studies Quarterly 38: 59-82 (With Paul Martin)
N/A
2013
Creating Constituencies: Presidential Campaigns, Selective Mobilization, and the Scope of Conflict
Political Behavior 34: 27-56 (With Paul Martin)
N/A
2012
Presidential Campaigns and Presidential Accountability
University of Illinois Press, Series on Democracy, Free Enterprise, and the Rule of Law
N/A
2011
Virgina Evictors Catalog
The Equity Center, University of Virginia and The RVA Eviction Lab, Virginia Commonwealth University (With Kate Howell, Jacob Goldstein-Greenwood, Elizabeth Mitchell, Ben Teresa, Connor White, Barbara Brown Wilson, and Hannah Woerhle)
N/A
2022
Orange Dot Report 5.0: Family Self-Sufficiency in the Charlottesville Region
Network2Work@PVCC, Piedmont Virginia Community College and The Equity Center, University of Virginia (With Ridge Schuyler, Lee LeBoeuf, and Beth Mitchell)
N/A
2022
Charlottesville Region Climate Equity Atlas
Picturing Climate Justice Exhibit, UVA Equity Center and the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center
N/A
2022
Albemarle County Equity Profile: Centering Equity in Evaluating Well-Being & Quality of LIfe for Albemarle County Residents
The Equity Center, University of Virginia (With Sam Powers, Michael Salgueiro, Siri Russell, Barbara Brown Wilson, and Alissa Ujie Diamond)
N/A
2021
Child Welfare Referrals in Charlottesville
Report to the Charlottesville Department of Social Services (With Hannah Lewis and the Public Interest Data Lab)
N/A
2020